"At one level, the YouTube debate shows that the Web has really become a centerpiece of American political culture," adds Lee Rainie, director of Pew Internet . "At another level, it also shows that the debate is not for everybody. It's certainly not available to all Americans."

The preceding is excerpted from an article published in the Washington Post earlier this week, entitled "Binary America: Split in Two by A Digital Divide" and reported from Charleston, South Carolina. While this past Monday the city of Charleston hosted the first CNN/YouTube presidential debate --this was a Democratic event; Republicans have a YouTube debate scheduled for September--55 percent of Charlestonians do not have access to high-speed internet, according to the Washington Post's sources. Tiara Reid, a 14-year-old girl interviewed for the article, regularly goes to great lengths to get to her local library, the only place where she can get on the web while school is out for the summer. Read the entire piece here .